By Ben Cohen
Robert Scheer is still hopeful that Obama will provide the change he promised:
Yet, it all does hang on him. Yes, Obama. The superstar, and not that
supporting cast of retreads from a failed past that have popped up in
his administration in the making. Now that we have the list of his top
economic and foreign policy picks--mostly a collection of folks who
wouldn't know change if it slapped them upside the head--we've got to
hope that it's Obama who is using them, and not the other way around......
If there is a grand arc to Obama's appointments strategy, it seems aimed at providing the appearance of continuity on the part of a leader who still promises to be very different. Clearly that was the case in retaining Robert Gates as secretary of defense and Marine Gen. Jim Jones as his White House national security adviser. Both choices could have been far worse. Jones has been involved in the exercise of "soft power" initiatives and seems like an otherwise sensible fellow. Gates has been a vast improvement over Donald Rumsfeld in grasping the limits of military power.
If there is a grand arc to Obama's appointments strategy, it seems aimed at providing the appearance of continuity on the part of a leader who still promises to be very different. Clearly that was the case in retaining Robert Gates as secretary of defense and Marine Gen. Jim Jones as his White House national security adviser. Both choices could have been far worse. Jones has been involved in the exercise of "soft power" initiatives and seems like an otherwise sensible fellow. Gates has been a vast improvement over Donald Rumsfeld in grasping the limits of military power.
